Welcome to my blog

Based at Kensington Central London.Qualified as a medical doctor in Western medicine over 20 years ago in China with a Medical degree from Beijing, China and a PhD degree from the UK. Many year research and clinical experiences

Doctor who is passionate about acupuncture

I love what I do, I am good at it and I am always there for my patients. If you come and see me, you will know why I am standing out.

This blog is to introduce latest development and research of acupuncture and offer a chance of awareness of more treatment options for your condition. The blog is for information purpose only.

My background: I became a qualified medical doctor in Western medicine 20 years ago in China and was well trained in Western medicine together with Chinese medicine in the best Medical University in Beijing, China. Also I was trained with Dr Zheren Xuan--famous orthopedics expert and founder of soft tissue surgery in China. I am dedicated to treat patients with acupuncture and am recognized as one of the world leading acupuncture specialists.

I obtained a PhD degree in the University of Leeds in the UK.

I had post doctoral training and worked as a senior researcher in St George's hospital, London, UK.

I had frequently presented my research findings in the top international conferences in the field.

I have many publications including ebooks and articles.

I have many year clinical experiences. Over the years of practicing, I have developed unique treatment approaches for infertility, skin aging, acne, vulvodynia, neck pain, headache, migraine, shoulder pain, back pain, fatigue, hot flushes, Parkison's disease etc to achieve best treatment results. My devotion and skills are highly praised by my patients.

Friday, 28 April 2017

When one relaxed, one must think the muscles must completely rest without any activity. Actually this is not the case. Muscles in the body are constantly in contracted state which creates muscle tone. Muscle tone is formed from the continuous and passive partial contraction of the muscles at resting state. Because of the muscle tone, muscles are resistant to passive stretch. It helps maintain posture, balance and respond to sudden pull and stretch. If a sudden pull occurs, the muscles are automatically increased the tension to prevent the body from danger. Generally speaking, low tone increases flexibility and decreases strength and high tone decreases flexibility and increases strength. However there are many exceptions. For example, if the muscle becomes cramped, it loses its strength. Poor posture can result in high muscle tones in related group of muscles.

Muscle tension is formed when muscles remain semi-contracted involuntarily for a period time. Muscle tension can be caused by stress and inflammation. One can feel headache, muscle pain, muscle tightness and stiffness.

Muscle changes with aging and muscle tightness, acupuncture can help

With aging changes in the skin and hair are common and more noticeable. People might not realise that muscles are also changing with aging. This change could start at age 30 and accelerate at age 50. Muscle fibres reduce in number and shrink in size. Muscle tissue is replaced more slowly and lost muscle tissue is replaced with a tough, fibrous tissue. Also changes in the nervous system cause muscle to lose tone and ability to contract and become rigid. Muscle loses strength because of a decrease in the production of anabolic hormones such as testosterone, growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor-1 and impairment of protein production. This can contribute to fatigue, weakness and reduced tolerance to exercise. The types of muscle fibers are affected by aging as well. The numbers of muscle fibers that contract faster decrease much more than the numbers of muscle fibers that contract slower. Thus, muscles are not able to contract as quickly in old age.

With aging bone has changed as well. Bones lose calcium and other minerals and become less dense. This change becomes dramatic after menopause due to hormones change in both female and male. With aging joint movement becomes stiffer and less flexible because the amount of lubricating fluid inside the joints decreases and the cartilage becomes thinner. Ligaments also tend to shorten and lose some flexibility, making joints feel stiff. Also the connective tissue within ligaments and tendons becomes more rigid and brittle. This change also limits the range of motion of joints.

What to do?

Exercise can prevent many age-related changes to muscles, bones and joints – and reverse these changes as well. Exercise can make bones stronger and help slow the rate of bone loss; muscle-strengthening can increase muscle mass and strength; Stretching helps maintain joint flexibility; walking is a good exercise for maintenance of bone mass.

Acupuncture is a good way to release muscle tension. Acupuncture helps improving blood circulation and improves nutrition and oxygen supply to the muscles and bones and improves metabolism of muscles and bones. Acupuncture helps reduce inflammation, release and repair any damage of the tendons and ligaments.

Muscles tightness, acupuncture can help.

Muscle tightness is that muscles feel tight and stiff which is caused by muscle contractions. Some people feel pain of muscles. Muscle tightness often develops from overuse, trauma, stress or illness. Muscles shorten over time and they become weaker over time. Muscle contraction leads to ischemia and degeneration of the muscle fibers which further weaken the muscles. Loss of balance can occur. Muscle tightness also increases the risk of muscle strain or tearing of muscle fibers during activity. It is important to maintain flexibility to relieve muscle tightness and reduce risk of injury.

Fascia is dense connective tissue sheets and it plays an important role in transmitting force in human posture and movement regulation. Fascia is usually seen as having a passive role, transmitting mechanical tension which is generated by muscle activity or external forces. However, there is some evidence to suggest that fascia may be able to actively contract in a smooth muscle-like manner and consequently influence musculoskeletal dynamics. Myofibroblast cells are a special type of cells with smooth muscle like contractility. These cells are present at skeletal muscle tendons, ligaments and many organ capsules. They are also reported in fascia. The density is higher in younger people. Fascia contraction contributes to the tension and stiffness of the muscles, such as back pain, frozen shoulder and headaches etc. Releasing fascia contraction could improve muscle tension and stiffness.

As mentioned above that acupuncture can relieve muscle tightness and relax your muscles.

Muscle cramps, acupuncture can help.

A muscle spasm also known as a muscle cramp is an involuntary contraction of a muscle. Skeletal muscle spasms happen suddenly and are very painful. The causes include overuse, over stretched, tiredness, injury or strain. Other causes include dehydration and depletion of electrolytes. Muscle cells require enough water, glucose, ions including sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium to contract. Abnormal supply of these elements can cause the muscle to become irritable and develop spasm. Narrowed arteries also can cause muscle spasm due to inadequate blood supply and nutrients. Exercises often cause leg spasms and chronic neck and back pain can often cause muscle spasms. Many conditions can result in muscle spasm.

A leg cramp, for example is an episode of sudden pain in the muscles of the leg caused by an involuntary contracting of the leg muscle. Leg cramps are common and it usually occurs in the calf muscles. It can also happen in any part of your leg, including your feet and thighs. When it happens, the muscles in your leg suddenly become tight and painful which will last seconds to minutes. After the cramping has passed, you may have pain and tenderness in your leg for some time. This often occurs at night during sleep. If you only get leg cramps occasionally, it is not a cause for concern. If you get leg cramps frequently, or if they are so painful they disrupt your sleep and you are unable to function normally the next day, you should get help from health care professionals. Sometimes the cause of leg cramps is not clear, we call it idiopathic leg cramps. Theoretically idiopathic leg cramps can be caused by abnormal nerve activity during sleep or excessive strain placed on leg muscles such as exercises, or a sudden restriction in the blood supply to the affected muscles. Shortened tendon can also be one of the causes in old people. Leg muscles cramps can be caused by some other conditions for example, pregnancy, neurological conditions, liver disease, infection, toxins or dehydration. Some medicines can also cause leg muscle cramps suc as diuretics, statins, raloxifene, nifedipine and nicotinic acid.

Do you know that acupuncture can help with improving muscle cramps?

Muscle knots and muscle pain, acupuncture can help

Muscles in the body are connected and overlapped. This brings the body moving around and doing various activities without problem. Sometimes the muscles can lose some mobility and flexibility. Injury and overuse are common cause for muscles problems. For example muscle knots are one of the common problems. It can happen to any muscles.

Muscle knots are initially formed by muscle fiber contraction or spasm. This is commonly caused by acute injury or chronic overuse. The muscles knots are very sensitive causing stillness and pain. Severity of the pain varies. If the knots are not treated properly, inflammation can persist, and adhesion and scar tissues make the knots and related muscles lose elasticity and the knots become harder and more difficult to get rid of.

Do you know acupuncture can help to get rid of muscle knots effectively?

Thursday, 27 April 2017

Connection between mind and body has been discovered for centuries. In ancient time, it was believed that emotions were linked to disease and patients were advised to visit spas or seaside resorts when they were ill. Today it is widely accepted that there is a powerful mind-body connection through which emotional, mental, social, spiritual, and behavioral factors can directly affect our health. There is common sense ‘too much stress makes you sick' which means that there is a links between stress and health. There was a survey in the UK has shown that workers have high stress and little autonomy, have more than twice the risk of developing metabolic syndrome—a precursor of heart disease and diabetes. By measuring heart rate, and cortisol and adrenaline levels, researchers also found that stress affects the autonomic nervous system and neuroendocrine function. Other recent research showed that acute and chronic psychological stress, related to low socio-economic status, can increase the risk of heart attack by increasing circulating levels of platelet–leukocyte aggregates. It was also suggested that there was link between stress and other conditions, such as infertility, chronic pain, fatigue, acne etc. Mind body therapies are helpful in managing these conditions by promoting relaxation. Acupuncture is one of the mind body therapy techniques that can relax body and mind to ease the symptoms of the conditions and improve psychological functioning and quality of life.

Acupuncture releases tension of the body and mind

When the body or mind is stressed, muscles reflex and are tense up instantly. This creates lot of tensions to the body and mind. If the stress is prolonged, muscles are constantly in contracting state and tension is building up. This constricts blood vessels and reduces blood flow and energy supply to the organs and tissues such as muscles, tendons and nerves etc. One may feel stiff or tight with or without pain in the body. This may trigger stress related disorders, for example, anxiety, tension type headache, migraine, other chronic pain conditions and this also affects many systems in the body such as nervous system, respiratory system, cardiovascular system and endocrine system, reproductive system etc. Initially this affects system function in short term and this can cause pathological changes of the affected system in long run. There are many tips to teach you how to relieve stress and release the tension of the body and mind. Which one works for you? Sometimes you might find none of the tips works. Do you know acupuncture is very effective to release tension from the body and mind?

Acupuncture helps with anxiety

Recent research has shown that acupuncture is effective to treat anxiety. there were many studies all around the world on this aspect. A review analysed current data from 19 articles. These studies were done by many countries: the United States of America had the highest number of articles on this topic (31.6%), followed by Brazil (15.7%). In turn, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia presented the same production percentages (10.5%). Sweden, Turkey, Austria, and Israel also had the same production percentage (5.3%).The results from these studies show that the effects from acupuncture for treating anxiety have been shown to be significant as compared to conventional treatments.

Tuesday, 4 April 2017

Urinary incontinence is the involuntary leakage of urine from the bladder. It affects 10% of the population. Women are more commonly affected. The most common types of leaking urine are stress incontinence and urge incontinence. Stress incontinence is when urine leaks out at times when the bladder is under pressure, such as coughing, sneezing, heavy lifting exercising and laughing. Stress incontinence is usually the result of the weakening of or damage to the muscles used to prevent urination, such as the pelvic floor muscles and the urethral sphincter. Urge incontinence is when urine leaks as a sudden, intense urge to pass urine is needed. Urge incontinence is usually the result of overactivity of the muscles, which control the bladder. It is also known as overactive bladder. Pelvic floor muscle training is one of the treatments used to treat this condition. Acupuncture is also used to treat this condition. Research on leaking urine with acupuncture treatment is emerging. For example

Recently Xu et al investigated the effectiveness of acupuncture on stress urinary incontinence. Before treatment a 72-hour bladder diary recorded by participants at baseline (week 0) and then acupuncture treatment was applied and the bladder diary was recorded during the treatment period (weeks 2, 4 and 6) and follow-up period (weeks 15–18 and weeks 27–30). In the bladder diary, the participants recorded in detail the time and frequency of UI, activity that occurred at the time of leak, and the type and volume of liquid intake.